Horatio, Viscount Nelson | Autograph letter signed, to Emma Hamilton, "I am all all yours", 19 August 1805

Proeprty from the Jean Hart Kislak Collection

Vice Admiral Horatio, Viscount Nelson

Autograph letter signed ("Nelson & Bronte"), to Emma Hamilton,

writing of his longing to see her ("...I shall my Emma rejoice to have you in my arms then need not envy a thing I am all all yours...") as he arrives back in England for his final shore leave, and his frustration at being trapped in quarantine ("...I am now my Dearest Emma in Quarantine for the first time of my Life and I never could have been more mortified by it..."), 3 pages, 4to, HMS Victory, August 19, 1805, dust stained, torn at central fold, some slight fading

"...I shall only say may Heaven sents [sic] us a speedy meeting a happy one I am sure it will be Ever for Ever my Emma your own faithful Nelson & Bronte"  

NELSON'S EXPRESSES HIS IMPATIENCE TO REJOIN HIS LOVER. Nelson had been at sea on the Victory for two years when he wrote this letter. He had just chased Villeneuve's fleet across the Atlantic when he returned to England for four weeks of leave. He was to rejoin his ship on 14 September and sail to the British fleet off Cadiz. The Battle of Trafalgar was to follow just weeks later. Nelson's letters from port often express irritation at Admiralty bureaucracy but his intense frustration at any delays in joining Emma at Merton are easily understandable. He promises that he will "not stay Ten minutes in Portsmouth only to Bow to the Commander In Chief & the Commissioner". He also looks forward to a busy household at Merton (carefully listing Horatia amongst a group of names to disguise her special significance to the couple): "I shall rejoice to see Horatia, Charlotte & Ann & Eliza, and I would not have my Emmas relation go without my seeing her". However his letter leaves no room for doubt as to who is at the centre of his thoughts.

LITERATURE

Nelson's Letters to Lady Hamilton and Related Documents, ed. M. Czisnik (2020), no. 381